# Botchan, Chapter 3

坊っちゃん · Natsume Sōseki · Botchan

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch03. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/botchan/ch03.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/botchan/<line id>.m4a.


いよいよ学校へ出た。  
At last I went to school.
初めて教場へはいって高い所へ乗った時は、何だか変だった。  
The first time I stepped into the classroom and climbed up onto the platform, it felt strange somehow.
講釈をしながら、おれでも先生が勤まるのかと思った。  
While I lectured, I found myself wondering whether even I could actually pull off being a teacher.
生徒はやかましい。  
The students are a rowdy bunch.
時々図抜けた大きな声で先生と云う。  
Every so often one of them bellows out "Sensei!" at some absurd volume.
先生には応えた。  
That word — sensei — hit me hard.
> «応える» こたえる (kotaeru): «応える» こたえる (kotaeru) here doesn't mean 'to answer' (that's «答える», same reading) — it means 'to take a toll on / to hit hard,' as in physical or emotional impact. Being called sensei genuinely rattles Botchan. Note that «答える» is also used later in this chapter (p7-s15, «胃に答える») with this same 'affect/hit hard' meaning — Soseki's Meiji-era text isn't consistent about which kanji spells this idiom, so don't assume «答える» is reserved only for the 'to answer (a question)' sense.
今まで物理学校で毎日先生先生と呼びつけていたが、先生と呼ぶのと、呼ばれるのは雲泥の差だ。  
Back at the physics school I'd called out "sensei, sensei" to my own teachers every day, but calling someone sensei and being called it yourself are worlds apart.
> «雲泥の差» うんでいのさ (undei no sa): «雲泥の差» うんでいのさ (undei no sa), literally 'the difference between clouds and mud' — a set idiom for an enormous gulf, like night and day. Botchan uses it for the gap between teaching and being taught.
何だか足の裏がむずむずする。  
It made the soles of my feet itch, somehow.
おれは卑怯な人間ではない。  
I'm no coward.
臆病な男でもないが、惜しい事に胆力が欠けている。  
Nor am I timid, but unfortunately I'm short on plain nerve.
先生と大きな声をされると、腹の減った時に丸の内で午砲を聞いたような気がする。  
When someone shouts "Sensei!" at me, it feels like hearing the noon cannon go off in Marunouchi on an empty stomach.
最初の一時間は何だかいい加減にやってしまった。  
I fumbled through that first hour somehow, half-heartedly.
> «てしまう» — completion, often with regret: «やってしまった» = «やる» (to do) + «てしまう», the auxiliary that marks an action carried through to completion — frequently, as here, with a tinge of regret: 'I went and did it (half-heartedly, and there's no taking it back).'
しかし別段困った質問も掛けられずに済んだ。  
But at least no one hit me with a question that really stumped me.
控所へ帰って来たら、山嵐がどうだいと聞いた。  
Back in the staff room, Porcupine asked me how it went.
うんと単簡に返事をしたら山嵐は安心したらしかった。  
I gave him a curt "Mm," and that seemed to set him at ease.

二時間目に白墨を持って控所を出た時には何だか敵地へ乗り込むような気がした。  
Heading out of the staff room for second period, chalk in hand, I felt like I was marching into enemy territory.
教場へ出ると今度の組は前より大きな奴ばかりである。  
In the classroom this time, the class was nothing but bigger louts than before.
おれは江戸っ子で華奢に小作りに出来ているから、どうも高い所へ上がっても押しが利かない。  
Being an Edokko, I'm built slight and delicate, so standing up on that platform I just don't have the presence to push people around.
> «江戸っ子» えどっこ (Edokko): «江戸っ子» えどっこ (Edokko), 'child of Edo' — a true-born Tokyoite, proudly quick-tempered, plainspoken, and impatient with anything slow or roundabout. Botchan calls himself this constantly to explain his own bluntness.
喧嘩なら相撲取とでもやってみせるが、こんな大僧を四十人も前へ並べて、ただ一枚の舌をたたいて恐縮させる手際はない。  
In a fistfight I'd take on a sumo wrestler if I had to, but I have no knack for lining up forty of these big louts and cowing them with nothing but my tongue.
しかしこんな田舎者に弱身を見せると癖になると思ったから、なるべく大きな声をして、少々巻き舌で講釈してやった。  
Still, I figured showing weakness to country boys like these would become a habit, so I lectured as loudly as I could, rolling my r's a bit for effect.
最初のうちは、生徒も烟に捲かれてぼんやりしていたから、それ見ろとますます得意になって、べらんめい調を用いてたら、一番前の列の真中に居た、一番強そうな奴が、いきなり起立して先生と云う。  
At first the students sat there dazed, as if I'd smoked them out, and seeing that made me all the more pleased with myself, so I kept laying on the shitamachi swagger — until the toughest-looking one, right in the middle of the front row, suddenly stood up and said "Sensei."
> «べらんめい調» べらんめいちょう (beranmei-chō): «べらんめい» is downtown-Tokyo (shitamachi) slang, a rapid, brash, contraction-heavy way of speaking — think working-class Edo bravado (often pronounced with a long 'ē,' beranmē, in casual speech). «調» ちょう (chō) means 'style/tone,' so «べらんめい調» = 'talking beranmē-style,' exactly the register Botchan turns on to intimidate his rural students.
そら来たと思いながら、何だと聞いたら、「あまり早くて分からんけれ、もちっと、ゆるゆる遣って、おくれんかな、もし」と云った。  
Here it comes, I thought, and asked him what — and he said, "It's too fast, I can't follow, could you go a bit more slow, please, huh."
> Iyo (Matsuyama) dialect markers: «分からん» (= standard «分からない», 'don't understand') and the clause-final «けれ» and «もし» are local Shikoku (Iyo/Matsuyama-area) dialect — «けれ» softens like 'because, you see,' and «もし» is a mild sentence-final tag roughly like 'if you please.' To Botchan's Tokyo ear it sounds hopelessly countrified.
おくれんかな、もしは生温るい言葉だ。  
"Could you, please, huh" is a mushy sort of phrase.
早過ぎるなら、ゆっくり云ってやるが、おれは江戸っ子だから君等の言葉は使えない、分らなければ、分るまで待ってるがいいと答えてやった。  
If it's too fast, I'll say it slower, I answered, but I'm an Edokko, so I can't speak your dialect — if you don't follow, you can just wait until you do.
この調子で二時間目は思ったより、うまく行った。  
At that rate, second period went better than I'd expected.
ただ帰りがけに生徒の一人がちょっとこの問題を解釈をしておくれんかな、もし、と出来そうもない幾何の問題を持って逼ったには冷汗を流した。  
Only, on my way out, one student pressed some geometry problem on me that looked beyond me, saying "Could you please explain this one, huh," and that broke me out in a cold sweat.
仕方がないから何だか分らない、この次教えてやると急いで引き揚げたら、生徒がわあと囃した。  
With no way out, I said I didn't quite follow it and would teach it next time, and hurried off — at which the students all whooped and jeered.
その中に出来ん出来んと云う声が聞える。  
Somewhere in the noise I could hear a voice saying "can't do it, can't do it."
箆棒め、先生だって、出来ないのは当り前だ。  
Idiots — of course even a teacher can't solve everything.
出来ないのを出来ないと云うのに不思議があるもんか。  
What's so strange about admitting you can't do what you can't do?
そんなものが出来るくらいなら四十円でこんな田舎へくるもんかと控所へ帰って来た。  
If I could solve things like that on the spot, would I really have come out to a backwater like this for forty yen a month, I thought, heading back to the staff room.
今度はどうだとまた山嵐が聞いた。  
How'd it go this time, Porcupine asked again.
うんと云ったが、うんだけでは気が済まなかったから、この学校の生徒は分らずやだなと云ってやった。  
I said "Mm," but that alone didn't sit right with me, so I added that the students at this school were a thick-headed lot.
山嵐は妙な顔をしていた。  
Porcupine made an odd face at that.

三時間目も、四時間目も昼過ぎの一時間も大同小異であった。  
Third period, fourth period, and the hour after lunch were all much the same.
最初の日に出た級は、いずれも少々ずつ失敗した。  
In every class I taught that first day, I slipped up a little.
教師ははたで見るほど楽じゃないと思った。  
Teaching, I decided, isn't nearly the easy job it looks like from outside.
授業はひと通り済んだが、まだ帰れない、三時までぽつ然として待ってなくてはならん。  
My lessons were all done, but I still couldn't go home — I had to sit there twiddling my thumbs until three o'clock.
三時になると、受持級の生徒が自分の教室を掃除して報知にくるから検分をするんだそうだ。  
At three, students from my homeroom clean their classroom and come to report it, so apparently I have to go inspect it.
それから、出席簿を一応調べてようやくお暇が出る。  
After that I check over the attendance book, and only then am I finally let go.
いくら月給で買われた身体だって、あいた時間まで学校へ縛りつけて机と睨めっくらをさせるなんて法があるものか。  
Even if my body's bought and paid for by a salary, is there any law that says I have to be chained to school through every free hour, staring down a desk?
しかしほかの連中はみんな大人しくご規則通りやってるから新参のおればかり、だだを捏ねるのもよろしくないと思って我慢していた。  
But since everyone else went along quietly with the rules, I figured it wouldn't do for me, the new hire, to be the only one whining, so I put up with it.
帰りがけに、君何でもかんでも三時過まで学校にいさせるのは愚だぜと山嵐に訴えたら、山嵐はそうさアハハハと笑ったが、あとから真面目になって、君あまり学校の不平を云うと、いかんぜ。  
On the way home I complained to Porcupine that keeping everyone at school past three no matter what was plain foolish, and he laughed, "That's right, ha ha ha" — but then turned serious and said, "You'd best not go around complaining about the school too much."
> Sentence-final «ぜ» — rough masculine emphasis: «ぜ» tacked onto a plain-form sentence («愚だぜ», «いかんぜ») is a rough, masculine sentence-final particle used among close male friends — it asserts a claim forcefully, like 'I'm telling you.' Both Botchan and Porcupine use it constantly with each other.
云うなら僕だけに話せ、随分妙な人も居るからなと忠告がましい事を云った。  
"If you're going to say it, say it to me only — there are some pretty odd characters around here," he added, sounding for all the world like he was giving me a warning.
四つ角で分れたから詳しい事は聞くひまがなかった。  
We parted ways at the crossroads, so there was no time to ask what he meant by it.

それからうちへ帰ってくると、宿の亭主がお茶を入れましょうと云ってやって来る。  
Then when I get back to my lodgings, the landlord comes along saying he'll make the tea.
お茶を入れると云うからご馳走をするのかと思うと、おれの茶を遠慮なく入れて自分が飲むのだ。  
Hearing "make the tea," I figured he meant to treat me, but he brews my own tea without the slightest hesitation and drinks it himself.
この様子では留守中も勝手にお茶を入れましょうを一人で履行しているかも知れない。  
At this rate, he's probably carrying out his own private "I'll make the tea" routine even while I'm out.
亭主が云うには手前は書画骨董がすきで、とうとうこんな商買を内々で始めるようになりました。  
As the landlord tells it, he's fond of paintings and antiques, and eventually took up dealing in them quietly on the side.
あなたもお見受け申すところ大分ご風流でいらっしゃるらしい。  
"And from what I can see, you yourself seem to have quite the artistic bent."
> Keigo: humble + respectful, laid on thick: «お見受け申す» is humble language (謙譲語) — the landlord lowers his own act of 'observing' you; «ご風流でいらっしゃる» is respectful language (尊敬語) — «いらっしゃる» elevates the listener's state of being. Stacking both this heavily on a lodging-house owner reads as oily flattery, not genuine formality.
ちと道楽にお始めなすってはいかがですと、飛んでもない勧誘をやる。  
"Why not take it up as a little hobby yourself?" — an absolutely outrageous pitch.
二年前ある人の使に帝国ホテルへ行った時は錠前直しと間違えられた事がある。  
Two years ago, running an errand for someone at the Imperial Hotel, I was once mistaken for a locksmith.
ケットを被って、鎌倉の大仏を見物した時は車屋から親方と云われた。  
Wearing a blanket over my head to go see the Great Buddha of Kamakura, a rickshaw man once called me "boss."
その外今日まで見損われた事は随分あるが、まだおれをつらまえて大分ご風流でいらっしゃると云ったものはない。  
I've been mistaken for all sorts of things over the years besides, but no one has ever yet grabbed hold of me and called me a man of refined taste.
大抵はなりや様子でも分る。  
Usually you can tell just from a person's looks and manner.
風流人なんていうものは、画を見ても、頭巾を被るか短冊を持ってるものだ。  
You can spot a man of taste even in a picture: he will be wearing a hood or holding a poetry slip.
このおれを風流人だなどと真面目に云うのはただの曲者じゃない。  
Anyone who seriously calls me a man of taste is no ordinary rogue.
おれはそんな呑気な隠居のやるような事は嫌いだと云ったら、亭主はへへへへと笑いながら、いえ始めから好きなものは、どなたもございませんが、いったんこの道にはいるとなかなか出られませんと一人で茶を注いで妙な手付をして飲んでいる。  
I told him I hated the sort of thing idle old retirees busy themselves with, and the landlord just laughed "heh heh heh" and said, "No, no one likes it from the start, sir, but once you step into this world you can hardly step back out" — and went on pouring himself tea, sipping it with some strange flourish of the hand.
実はゆうべ茶を買ってくれと頼んでおいたのだが、こんな苦い濃い茶はいやだ。  
Truth is, I'd asked him the night before to buy some tea, but I can't stand it this bitter and strong.
一杯飲むと胃に答えるような気がする。  
One cup of it and I can feel it hit my stomach.
今度からもっと苦くないのを買ってくれと云ったら、かしこまりましたとまた一杯しぼって飲んだ。  
When I told him to buy something less bitter next time, he said "certainly, sir," and squeezed out another cup for himself.
> «かしこまりました» かしこまりました (kashikomarimashita): «かしこまりました» かしこまりました (kashikomarimashita) is the standard humble reply for 'certainly / understood,' used by someone in service toward a customer or superior. The landlord answers Botchan with perfect formal deference — right before helping himself to another cup of the tea he was just told to fix.
人の茶だと思って無暗に飲む奴だ。  
The man just drinks whatever he pleases, thinking of it as somebody else's tea.
主人が引き下がってから、明日の下読をしてすぐ寝てしまった。  
Once the landlord finally withdrew, I looked over tomorrow's lesson and went straight to bed.

それから毎日毎日学校へ出ては規則通り働く、毎日毎日帰って来ると主人がお茶を入れましょうと出てくる。  
After that, day after day I went to school and worked by the rules, and day after day I came home to the landlord popping out with his "I'll make the tea."
一週間ばかりしたら学校の様子もひと通りは飲み込めたし、宿の夫婦の人物も大概は分った。  
After about a week I'd more or less gotten the hang of how the school worked, and had mostly sized up the couple who ran my lodgings.
ほかの教師に聞いてみると辞令を受けて一週間から一ヶ月ぐらいの間は自分の評判がいいだろうか、悪るいだろうか非常に気に掛かるそうであるが、おれは一向そんな感じはなかった。  
Asking the other teachers, I gathered that for the week or month after receiving your appointment, you fret terribly over whether your reputation is good or bad — but I felt nothing of the kind at all.
教場で折々しくじるとその時だけはやな心持ちだが三十分ばかり立つと奇麗に消えてしまう。  
When I slipped up now and then in class it felt rotten in the moment, but after about half an hour it vanished clean away.
おれは何事によらず長く心配しようと思っても心配が出来ない男だ。  
Whatever the matter, I'm the sort of man who can't manage to worry for long even when I try to.
教場のしくじりが生徒にどんな影響を与えて、その影響が校長や教頭にどんな反応を呈するかまるで無頓着であった。  
I was utterly unconcerned with what effect my classroom slip-ups might have on the students, or what response that effect might draw from the principal or the vice-principal.
おれは前に云う通りあまり度胸の据った男ではないのだが、思い切りはすこぶるいい人間である。  
As I've said before, I'm not a man of especially steady nerve, but I'm remarkably decisive.
この学校がいけなければすぐどっかへ行く覚悟でいたから、狸も赤シャツも、ちっとも恐しくはなかった。  
I was resolved that if this school didn't suit me I'd just go off somewhere else at once, so neither Badger nor Red Shirt frightened me in the slightest.
まして教場の小僧共なんかには愛嬌もお世辞も使う気になれなかった。  
Much less could I bring myself to spend any charm or flattery on the brats in the classroom.
学校はそれでいいのだが下宿の方はそうはいかなかった。  
School was fine on that count, but my lodgings were another matter.
亭主が茶を飲みに来るだけなら我慢もするが、いろいろな者を持ってくる。  
If the landlord had only come to drink tea I could have put up with it, but he brought all sorts of things besides.
始めに持って来たのは何でも印材で、十ばかり並べておいて、みんなで三円なら安い物だお買いなさいと云う。  
The first thing he brought was, of all things, seal stones — he lined up about ten of them and said the whole lot for three yen was a bargain, wouldn't I buy them.
田舎巡りのヘボ絵師じゃあるまいし、そんなものは入らないと云ったら、今度は華山とか何とか云う男の花鳥の掛物をもって来た。  
I told him I wasn't some second-rate painter touring the provinces and had no use for such things, so next he brought a hanging scroll of flowers and birds by some fellow called Kazan or other.
自分で床の間へかけて、いい出来じゃありませんかと云うから、そうかなと好加減に挨拶をすると、華山には二人ある、一人は何とか華山で、一人は何とか華山ですが、この幅はその何とか華山の方だと、くだらない講釈をしたあとで、どうです、あなたなら十五円にしておきます。  
He hung it in the alcove himself and asked wasn't it fine work, and when I gave some noncommittal "I suppose so" in reply, he launched into a worthless lecture about how there are two Kazans, one such-and-such Kazan and one such-and-such other Kazan, and this scroll was by the latter one — and then, "What do you say, for you I'll make it fifteen yen."
お買いなさいと催促をする。  
"Do buy it," he pressed.
金がないと断わると、金なんか、いつでもようございますとなかなか頑固だ。  
I refused, saying I had no money, but he was terribly stubborn about it — the money, he said, could wait as long as I liked.
金があつても買わないんだと、その時は追っ払っちまった。  
Even if I had money I wouldn't buy it, I said, and drove him off then and there.
> «てしまう» contracted to «ちまう»: «ちまう» is the casual, contracted spoken form of «てしまう» (追っ払ってしまった → 追っ払っちまった). Botchan's narration leans on this shortened, punchy form constantly — it's part of his brash, unpolished first-person voice.
その次には鬼瓦ぐらいな大硯を担ぎ込んだ。  
The next time, he hauled in an inkstone as huge as a demon roof-tile.
これは端渓です、端渓ですと二遍も三遍も端渓がるから、面白半分に端渓た何だいと聞いたら、すぐ講釈を始め出した。  
"This is a Tankei, a Tankei," he kept saying two, three times over, so half in jest I asked him just what a Tankei was, and he launched straight into a lecture.
> «端渓» たんけい (Tankei): «端渓» たんけい (Tankei) — Duanxi in Chinese — names a prized stone from Guangdong, China, used since antiquity for the finest ink-grinding stones (硯, suzuri). A genuine Tankei inkstone was a serious luxury item; the landlord's overselling of one to a poor young teacher is the joke.
端渓には上層中層下層とあって、今時のものはみんな上層ですが、これはたしかに中層です、この眼をご覧なさい。  
Tankei comes from upper, middle, and lower strata. Everything quarried nowadays is from the upper stratum, but this is certainly from the middle. — just look at this "eye."
眼が三つあるのは珍らしい。  
Having three eyes in the stone is a rare thing, he said.
溌墨の具合も至極よろしい、試してご覧なさいと、おれの前へ大きな硯を突きつける。  
"And It produces ink beautifully, too. — do try it," he said, shoving the great inkstone right in front of me.
いくらだと聞くと、持主が支那から持って帰って来て是非売りたいと云いますから、お安くして三十円にしておきましょうと云う。  
When I asked how much, he said the owner had brought it back from China and was set on selling it, so he'd make it a bargain at thirty yen.
この男は馬鹿に相違ない。  
This man is a fool, without question.
学校の方はどうかこうか無事に勤まりそうだが、こう骨董責に逢ってはとても長く続きそうにない。  
School itself seemed likely enough to go on peacefully somehow, but subjected to this barrage of antiques, I doubted I could hold out for long.

そのうち学校もいやになった。　　  
Before long even school began to wear on me.
ある日の晩大町と云う所を散歩していたら郵便局の隣りに蕎麦とかいて、下に東京と注を加えた看板があった。  
One evening, out for a walk through a place called Ōmachi, I came across a sign next to the post office that read "Soba," with "Tokyo-style" added underneath.
おれは蕎麦が大好きである。  
I'm extremely fond of soba noodles.
東京に居った時でも蕎麦屋の前を通って薬味の香いをかぐと、どうしても暖簾がくぐりたくなった。  
Even back when I lived in Tokyo, passing a soba shop and catching the smell of the spring onions would always make me want to duck through the curtain.
> «暖簾をくぐる» のれんをくぐる (noren o kuguru): «暖簾» のれん (noren) is the short split curtain hung across a shop's entrance; «くぐる» means to pass under/through something. 'To duck under the noren' idiomatically means simply 'to go into the shop' — the physical gesture of ducking under it stands for stepping inside.
今日までは数学と骨董で蕎麦を忘れていたが、こうして看板を見ると素通りが出来なくなる。  
Between mathematics and antiques I'd forgotten all about soba until now, but seeing this sign, I couldn't just walk on past.
ついでだから一杯食って行こうと思って上がり込んだ。  
Since I was already there, I decided to have a bowl and stepped inside.
見ると看板ほどでもない。  
Once inside, the place wasn't up to its sign.
東京と断わる以上はもう少し奇麗にしそうなものだが、東京を知らないのか、金がないのか、滅法きたない。  
Having gone to the trouble of claiming "Tokyo," you'd think they'd keep it a bit cleaner, but whether from ignorance of Tokyo or lack of money, it was filthy beyond belief.
畳は色が変ってお負けに砂でざらざらしている。  
The tatami had changed color, and on top of that was gritty with sand.
壁は煤で真黒だ。  
The walls were black with soot.
天井はランプの油烟で燻ぼってるのみか、低くって、思わず首を縮めるくらいだ。  
Not only was the ceiling grimed with lamp soot, it was so low I found myself instinctively hunching my neck.
ただ麗々と蕎麦の名前をかいて張り付けたねだん付けだけは全く新しい。  
Only the price list, pasted up with the soba dishes' names written out grandly, was brand new.
何でも古いうちを買って二三日前から開業したに違いなかろう。  
No doubt they'd bought up some old building and only opened for business two or three days before.
ねだん付の第一号に天麩羅とある。  
First on the price list was tempura.
おい天麩羅を持ってこいと大きな声を出した。  
"Hey, bring me tempura," I called out loudly.
するとこの時まで隅の方に三人かたまって、何かつるつる、ちゅうちゅう食ってた連中が、ひとしくおれの方を見た。  
At that, three men who'd been huddled in a corner slurping and sucking away at something all turned to look at me at once.
部屋が暗いので、ちょっと気がつかなかったが顔を合せると、みんな学校の生徒である。  
The room being dim, I hadn't noticed at first, but once our eyes met, I saw they were all my own students.
先方で挨拶をしたから、おれも挨拶をした。  
Since they greeted me first, I greeted them back.
その晩は久し振に蕎麦を食ったので、旨かったから天麩羅を四杯平げた。  
It being my first soba in a good while, and delicious besides, I polished off four bowls of tempura soba that night.

翌日何の気もなく教場へはいると、黒板一杯ぐらいな大きな字で、天麩羅先生とかいてある。  
The next day, walking into the classroom without a thought in the world, I found "Tempura Sensei" written across the blackboard in letters as big as the whole board.
おれの顔を見てみんなわあと笑った。  
Everyone burst out laughing the moment they saw my face.
おれは馬鹿馬鹿しいから、天麩羅を食っちゃ可笑しいかと聞いた。  
Finding it too ridiculous to bother with, I asked what was so funny about eating tempura.
すると生徒の一人が、しかし四杯は過ぎるぞな、もし、と云った。  
One student answered, "But four bowls is a bit much, sir, huh."
> Iyo dialect sentence-final tags: «ぞな» and «もし» are hallmark sentence endings of the Matsuyama-area (Iyo) dialect, roughly like a soft 'you know' / 'if you please' tacked onto a statement. Sōseki uses them throughout the novel to mark the local students' speech against Botchan's clipped Tokyo diction.
四杯食おうが五杯食おうがおれの銭でおれが食うのに文句があるもんかと、さっさと講義を済まして控所へ帰って来た。  
Whether I eat four bowls or five, it's my own money buying my own food — what's it to anyone? — and with that I got through the lecture quickly and went back to the staff room.
十分立って次の教場へ出ると一つ天麩羅四杯なり。  
Ten minutes later, when I went out to the next class, there it was on the board: "Item: Four Bowls of Tempura Soba."
但し笑うべからず。  
"But no laughing."
> «べからず» — classical prohibitive: «べからず» is the classical negative of «べし» ('should/must'): attached to a plain-form verb it means 'must not / shall not,' a formal, notice-board register — the kind of wording used on official signs. The students mock Botchan by mimicking that stiff official tone on the blackboard.
と黒板にかいてある。  
So it read on the blackboard.
さっきは別に腹も立たなかったが今度は癪に障った。  
The first time hadn't particularly bothered me, but this time it got under my skin.
冗談も度を過ごせばいたずらだ。  
A joke carried past a certain point stops being a joke and becomes plain mischief.
焼餅の黒焦のようなもので誰も賞め手はない。  
It's like a toasted rice cake burnt black — nobody's going to praise it.
田舎者はこの呼吸が分からないからどこまで押して行っても構わないと云う了見だろう。  
Country boys don't understand this kind of timing, so they figure they can push a thing as far as they please.
一時間あるくと見物する町もないような狭い都に住んで、外に何にも芸がないから、天麩羅事件を日露戦争のように触れちらかすんだろう。  
Living in a town so small you could see the whole of it in a single hour's walk, with nothing else to occupy them, they've gone and blown up the whole tempura affair as if it were the Russo-Japanese War.
憐れな奴等だ。  
Pathetic bunch.
小供の時から、こんなに教育されるから、いやにひねっこびた、植木鉢の楓みたような小人が出来るんだ。  
Being raised on this kind of thing from childhood is exactly how you end up with these disagreeably twisted little runts, like a maple bonsai stunted in a flowerpot.
無邪気ならいっしょに笑ってもいいが、こりゃなんだ。  
If it were done in innocence I could laugh right along with them, but what is this.
小供の癖に乙に毒気を持ってる。  
Mere children, and yet with such a nasty streak of malice in them.
おれはだまって、天麩羅を消して、こんないたずらが面白いか、卑怯な冗談だ。  
I said nothing, wiped "tempura" off the board, and told them: is this sort of prank really so amusing — it's a cowardly joke.
君等は卑怯と云う意味を知ってるか、と云ったら、自分がした事を笑われて怒るのが卑怯じゃろうがな、もしと答えた奴がある。  
"Do you even know what 'cowardly' means?" I asked, and one of them answered back, "Getting angry when people laugh at what you did yourself — that's what's cowardly, isn't it, sir, huh."
やな奴だ。  
Nasty little brat.
わざわざ東京から、こんな奴を教えに来たのかと思ったら情なくなった。  
To think I'd come all the way from Tokyo just to teach the likes of him made me thoroughly miserable.
余計な減らず口を利かないで勉強しろと云って、授業を始めてしまった。  
"Cut the smart talk and study," I told them, and went ahead and started the lesson.
それから次の教場へ出たら天麩羅を食うと減らず口が利きたくなるものなりと書いてある。  
Then, going out to the next class after that, I found written up: "Eating tempura makes one want to talk back."
どうも始末に終えない。  
There's simply no getting the better of them.
あんまり腹が立ったから、そんな生意気な奴は教えないと云ってすたすた帰って来てやった。  
I got so angry that I declared I wouldn't teach such impudent brats, and marched straight back without another word.
生徒は休みになって喜んだそうだ。  
The students, apparently, were delighted to get out of class.
こうなると学校より骨董の方がまだましだ。  
At this rate, the antiques dealer is starting to look better than the school.

天麩羅蕎麦もうちへ帰って、一晩寝たらそんなに肝癪に障らなくなった。  
As for the tempura-soba business, once I got home and slept on it a night, it stopped bothering me so much.
学校へ出てみると、生徒も出ている。  
I went to school, and the students turned up too.
何だか訳が分らない。  
It made no particular sense to me.
それから三日ばかりは無事であったが、四日目の晩に住田と云う所へ行って団子を食った。  
For about three days after that all was quiet, but on the evening of the fourth day I went to a place called Sumita and ate dumplings.
この住田と云う所は温泉のある町で城下から汽車だと十分ばかり、歩いて三十分で行かれる、料理屋も温泉宿も、公園もある上に遊廓がある。  
This Sumita is a hot-spring town, about ten minutes by train from the castle town, or thirty minutes on foot, and it has restaurants, hot-spring inns, a park, and on top of that a red-light district.
> «遊廓» ゆうかく (yūkaku): «遊廓» ゆうかく (yūkaku) — a licensed red-light district, common to Meiji-era Japanese towns, usually walled or gated off as its own quarter. Sōseki's Sumita is modeled on Dōgo, the hot-spring district of Matsuyama, where Sōseki himself once taught.
おれのはいった団子屋は遊廓の入口にあって、大変うまいという評判だから、温泉に行った帰りがけにちょっと食ってみた。  
The dumpling shop I went into stood at the entrance of the district and had a reputation for being very good, so on my way back from the hot spring I stopped in for a taste.
今度は生徒にも逢わなかったから、誰も知るまいと思って、翌日学校へ行って、一時間目の教場へはいると団子二皿七銭と書いてある。  
This time I hadn't run into any students, so I assumed no one would know, but the next day at school, walking into the first-period classroom, I found written up: "Dumplings, two plates, seven sen."
実際おれは二皿食って七銭払った。  
As it happens, I had eaten two plates and paid exactly seven sen.
どうも厄介な奴等だ。  
What a troublesome bunch.
二時間目にもきっと何かあると思うと遊廓の団子旨い旨いと書いてある。  
Sure enough, expecting something in second period too, I found: "Red-light district dumplings — delicious, delicious."
あきれ返った奴等だ。  
An utterly exasperating lot.
団子がそれで済んだと思ったら今度は赤手拭と云うのが評判になった。  
Just when I thought the dumpling business had died down, this time it was "Red Towel" that became the talk of the school.
何の事だと思ったら、つまらない来歴だ。  
I wondered what on earth it meant, and it turned out to be a thoroughly trivial story.
おれはここへ来てから、毎日住田の温泉へ行く事に極めている。  
Ever since coming here, I've made it a fixed habit to go to the hot spring at Sumita every day.
ほかの所は何を見ても東京の足元にも及ばないが温泉だけは立派なものだ。  
Everything else out here falls hopelessly short of Tokyo, but the hot spring, at least, is genuinely splendid.
せっかく来た者だから毎日はいってやろうという気で、晩飯前に運動かたがた出掛る。  
Since I've gone to the trouble of coming, I figured I might as well bathe there every day, so before dinner I go out, combining it with a bit of exercise.
> «かたがた» — doing two things at once: «かたがた» attached to a noun means 'while also / combining with' — «運動かたがた出掛る» = 'go out, combining it with exercise,' i.e. doing two things in one trip. It's a somewhat formal, literary connector for dual-purpose actions.
ところが行くときは必ず西洋手拭の大きな奴をぶら下げて行く。  
Whenever I go, I always bring along a big Western-style towel, dangling from my hand.
この手拭が湯に染った上へ、赤い縞が流れ出したのでちょっと見ると紅色に見える。  
The towel got dyed by the water, and its red stripes bled out, so at a glance it looks crimson all over.
おれはこの手拭を行きも帰りも、汽車に乗ってもあるいても、常にぶら下げている。  
I carry this towel with me always — going and coming, whether on the train or on foot.
それで生徒がおれの事を赤手拭赤手拭と云うんだそうだ。  
So it seems the students have taken to calling me "Red Towel, Red Towel."
どうも狭い土地に住んでるとうるさいものだ。  
Living in such a small, cramped place, people really do fuss over the smallest things.
まだある。  
There's more still.
温泉は三階の新築で上等は浴衣をかして、流しをつけて八銭で済む。  
The bathhouse is a newly built three-story building, and for eight sen the first-class option lends you a robe and includes someone to scrub your back.
その上に女が天目へ茶を載せて出す。  
On top of that, a woman brings out tea in a fine tenmoku bowl.
おれはいつでも上等へはいった。  
I always went for the first-class option.
すると四十円の月給で毎日上等へはいるのは贅沢だと云い出した。  
Then people started saying it was extravagant of me to use the first-class bath every day on a forty-yen salary.
余計なお世話だ。  
None of their business.
まだある。  
There's more yet.
湯壺は花崗石を畳み上げて、十五畳敷ぐらいの広さに仕切ってある。  
The bathing pool is built up of stacked granite blocks, partitioned off to about the size of fifteen tatami mats.
大抵は十三四人漬ってるがたまには誰も居ない事がある。  
Usually there are thirteen or fourteen people soaking in it, but every so often there's nobody there at all.
深さは立って乳の辺まであるから、運動のために、湯の中を泳ぐのはなかなか愉快だ。  
It's deep enough that, standing, the water comes up to about chest height, so swimming in the bath, for exercise, is a genuinely pleasant thing.
おれは人の居ないのを見済しては十五畳の湯壺を泳ぎ巡って喜んでいた。  
Whenever I saw the pool was empty, I'd delight in swimming laps around the whole fifteen-mat expanse of it.
ところがある日三階から威勢よく下りて今日も泳げるかなとざくろ口を覗いてみると、大きな札へ黒々と湯の中で泳ぐべからずとかいて貼りつけてある。  
But one day, coming down briskly from the third floor and peeking through the low entrance, wondering whether I could swim again today, I found a big sign pasted up, written boldly in black: "One shall not swim in the bath."
湯の中で泳ぐものは、あまりあるまいから、この貼札はおれのために特別に新調したのかも知れない。  
There can't be many people out there who swim in a hot-spring bath, so this notice may well have been freshly made up specially for my benefit.
おれはそれから泳ぐのは断念した。  
After that I gave up swimming there.
泳ぐのは断念したが、学校へ出てみると、例の通り黒板に湯の中で泳ぐべからずと書いてあるには驚ろいた。  
I'd given up swimming, but I was startled to find, going to school, that as usual, "One shall not swim in the bath" was written up on the blackboard.
何だか生徒全体がおれ一人を探偵しているように思われた。  
It began to feel as if the entire student body had turned into detectives, all of them shadowing me alone.
くさくさした。  
It thoroughly soured my mood.
生徒が何を云ったって、やろうと思った事をやめるようなおれではないが、何でこんな狭苦しい鼻の先がつかえるような所へ来たのかと思うと情なくなった。  
Whatever the students said, I'm not the sort of man to stop doing what I've set my mind to, but when I thought about why on earth I'd come to a cramped little place where you couldn't even turn your nose without bumping into something, it left me thoroughly wretched.
それでうちへ帰ると相変らず骨董責である。  
And then, going home, there was the antiques barrage waiting for me, same as ever.
---

Source text: public domain (Natsume Sōseki, d. 1916; first published 1906), from Aozora Bunko. English translation and notes: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC. Narration: synthesized for this edition.